Snail Outbreak

[tbay2005]

No idea what kind of snails these are, they came with the plants that were bought but the people that gave me the tank.

Looking through the gravel this morning I can see tonnes of them everywhere. Gonna try doing an early vacuum and water change, see if I can get rid of some of them.

[dustinpedley]

you can put a skunk loach or a large female guppy in the tank and they can help to keep them under control

[troy]

Guppies don't eat snails.

[dustinpedley]

Guppies don't eat snails.

My female guppies pick snail larva of the glass, pick out the adult snails and let your loaches and guppies go to town on the larva!

[Tolley]

step 2.a) Buy 2-3 botia stritara

Loaches need groups of atleast 6.

[bluekrissyspikes]

yes, loaches need a group of at least 6 with more current than a normal tank has. people should not be recommending someone get a fish just to eat snails when we don't know how big the tank is or what else is living in the tank. also, depending on the size and type of snail botia may not even want to eat them. feed less to your tank and you will have less snails. pick out the large ones if you can find em. doing the lettuce or cucumber trick regularly will help. if the snails are mts they will be quite helpful and useful members of your tank. if they are apple snails you can pick out the egg clusters. what do these snails look like? you can use different medications to poison the snails but this may cause an amonia spike in the tank and make it so that in the futur you can't keep any inverts so i wouldnt' really recommend that either. the snails will not harm your fish.

[bushwhacker]

gemstone i'm kinda like boertjie i get freaked bout snails tho when i go to sand in this new tank i'll need some mts

[johnpeezy]

yes, loaches need a group of at least 6 with more current than a normal tank has. people should not be recommending someone get a fish just to eat snails when we don't know how big the tank is or what else is living in the tank. also, depending on the size and type of snail botia may not even want to eat them. feed less to your tank and you will have less snails. pick out the large ones if you can find em. doing the lettuce or cucumber trick regularly will help. if the snails are mts they will be quite helpful and useful members of your tank. if they are apple snails you can pick out the egg clusters. what do these snails look like? you can use different medications to poison the snails but this may cause an amonia spike in the tank and make it so that in the futur you can't keep any inverts so i wouldnt' really recommend that either. the snails will not harm your fish.

you know I have read conflicting information regarding the ammount of loaches in an aquarium, I have two in mine no aggression between the two and they hang out and have a good time.

As far as loaches like a heavier current then most people have in there tanks, I have also read that zebra loaches actually like slower moving waters again more conflicting reports there too. I have had my zebra loaches in two diffrent tanks with to totally diffrent styles of filtration. One of which simply had an underpowered hang on back filter with next to no current. The other a multi filtered heavy current blackwater tank to simulate a river (as best as an aquarium will let me do). I have saw no diffrence in behavior between the two.

As far as me reccomending 2 or 3 zebra loaches in a 30 gallon tank. well, the post stated it was a thirty gallon tank and you are correct I should have asked what type of community the aquarium was housing.

I personally feel people shouldn't generalize the tank conditions of a fish species with the entire family, especially when there placing exact numbers of how many can be kept in captivity at once. I mean really, why is the magic number 6? I usually hear five, the reason why is because its the next highest odd number then three, personally I have had less confilts with schooling fish that I have kept in pairs rather then schools and it depends from species to species.

Clown loaches seem to be less tense when kept in larger numbers they feel more secure. Skunk loaches can be so overly aggressive they can be kept singly and still act secure. Zebra loaches are very timid usually found lounging at the bottom of the tank looking fat and happy, I mean if you want to see some quarrels break out among the zebra loaches by all means keep them in a group of 6 but I personally will stick with the excessivly peacful pair as in 2 zebra loaches that I have in my apistogramma cacuatoide tank soon to be removed because I'm going to start breeding up again, zebra loaches have a knack for eating eggs.....and snails.

[Mvjnz]

What snail larvae? They hatch fully formed, with shells and all.

If you don't want or can't get loaches, then you'll just have to reduce feeding and pick them out whenever you see them. It will keep the population under control, but won't eradicate them completely.